Properties of Young Massive Cluster Derived from Photometry

Abstract

I will show that photometry -- if extending over a reasonable choice of passbands -- can give fairly precise information about young star clusters and their evolutionary state. Optical colors alone are known to leave severe ambiguities due to degeneracies between age, metallicity and extinction. High quality photometry including $U, B, V$ or $I$, and a NIR band, however, in combination with an extensive grid of evolutionary synthesis models for star clusters and a dedicated tool to analyse spectral energy distributions allows to assess and largely disentangle star cluster ages, metallicities, extinction values and, hence, to derive their masses. Gaseous emission contributions sensibly affect broad band colors during the youngest stages, depending on metallicity. Mass functions of young star cluster systems may considerably differ in shape from luminosity functions. An ESO ASTROVIRTEL project provides multi-color photometry for a large number of young, intermediate age and old star cluster systems. As a first example I show results obtained for NGC 1569.